Do you feel comfortable dealing with DoA's younger members?

I haven't bought anything from the market place (yet). But I'd probably just vet out their feedback like I do with everyone. It wouldn't bother me in the least to buy from or sell to someone so much younger than me =3

 

I don't care if their young and old as long as they're polite to me. I've known mature twelve year olds and immature 22 year olds and if it's buying or selling I make it damn well aware that I'm not alone in purchesing. My mom only has one rule: "Don't tell Dad" because my dad is a jerk and said if he ever found a package with my DS username on it he was going to destroy it not caring what was inside.


What if what was inside a 400 dollar doll?

"I DON'T CARE!"

So swaps, buying to dad it's all: "Ebay." I've bought things off second hand before and I always made sure to get my mother's permission, same goes for trades and swaps. Infact tomorrow I'm sending off some gifts to someone for giving me free doll shoes and I'm planning on participating in swaps here when I get my MSD and still plan on doing swaps on another site. It's the amount of maturity and how you carry yourself. I don't have the best track record for sending things out because my mom works a lot and often times we don't have envolopes/mail out boxes in our house. (We just never stock up unless we know something's going on ahead of time.)

My mom works retail and she's made it clear to me that as a human being you gotta be polite, nice and on time or damn close to it with selling things. Even if that person is a douche because one bad instance of feedback can ruin your entire reputation.


I'm a minor but I can sew better then most of the adults I know and if it comes to BJD's or Tarantula's I can name off the company name's/specie's right off the top of my head and know what's safe to use on vinyl, what's not ect because I did my research and lurked.

I do feel comfortable dealing with younger members or older members. To me as long as the transaction is a pleasant one and my item arrived as described then I'm happy.


For the people with soccer moms who email and annoy the sellers I feel sorry for them because of their parent giving them a bad rap.

My mom allows me to deal with my transactions/trades on my own. She just makes it clear I gotta earn what I buy.


EDIT: And for the record I get the job done and I get it done well. As long as my buyer/trade partner/swap partner got their stuff then it's all good in the end and same goes for buying things for myself. It gets done in a timely manner.

 

If people are respectful and mature I can't tell their age over the internet. Young people don't bug me, RUDE people and people who don't use the resources avaiable like the Search function bug me.

 

I personally won't deal with anyone under 18, because if something goes wrong then legally I have very little redress - they wouldn't be using their own Paypal/credit card/whatever, and I don't want to have to drag a third party into it.

Over 18, it really depends on their feedback.

 

Well, I don't have market place access yet, but, honestly, I wouldn't.
I'm 19, almost 20, so I suppose I'm a lot younger than some people on here... In some ways I relate more to the younger bunch, I'd feel less awkward with them if I met them in person...

But I'd feel more comfortable buying and selling from the older bunch.

Why? It's not so much a matter of trust, as it is... Parents.
If I were to sell something to a younger teen on here, there'd be the slight paranoia that they nabbed their parents credit cards to make a purchase, and that I'd have to deal with an angry mom down the road, and lose a doll anyway.

Nothing like that has ever happened to me, but it's something I've seen happen, and it's a bit worrisome.

Plus younger people are more likely to complain about the price of BJDs, and have little respect for that price, or the work that goes into them. Same with face-ups and other services. (I have had THAT issue before, though with doll repaints, not BJDs... And it's very frustrating for 14 yearolds to complain and cry for you to lower your price to nothing, because they seem to think they're entitled to it. O.e )

But there are plenty of people that age who are very, very responsible.
I'd rather judge people by how they act, than how old they are. That's a joy to the internet, really.
A chance for a young person to put out a better first impression on here, than the first impression one might get if they saw them. People do judge a lot based on age, myself included, and that isn't always fair.

 

I agree with SuniMoon.

More often than not, when I'm dealing with selling and buying, I have absolutely no idea how old the person is.

But the parents ARE an issue, I'd hate to sell a doll and ship it only to have the parent say they never authorized the use of their card and do a chargeback, so I'm out money AND a doll. Or a parent raising hell because I bought a doll from their kid without them allowing it....or whatever.

I also have huge issues with students not shipping things on time due to school or no car. This is often college kids as well, not just minors. Yes, I understand your grades are important and you might not own a car, but the fact that you have my money AND my doll is a big deal to me and depending on how long it goes without communication or shipping, borders on theft. If it's finals week, you KNEW that week was coming from the first day you started those classes, so there's really no excuse to not even mention it until a week after you were supposedly going to ship my doll. If you have no transportation, you probably shouldn't state in a sales thread that you'll ship in 1-2 days. While I usually run into these problems with high school and college students, it's not the age that's an issue, it's the irresponsibilty and not caring about the needs or concerns of anyone but themselves that bothers me.

Overall, though, it's really not age as much as attitude. If I see a name in the problem transactions threads and instead of stating facts calmly and working out the issue, they're making excuses, name calling and throwing tantrums, I'm going to avoid that person like the plague and assume they're 10....

 

I'm cool with any age. I DO relate more easily to older members, but there are plenty of interesting and nice younger folk, too.

For the marketplace... I can't tell people's ages, and it can be a problem. But so far, I haven't had any problems related to the age of the buyer or seller... and I'm pretty active as a buyer.

Many bjd owners are responsible and mature for their age, I think. It's not easy knowing and dealing with the stuff you have to in the bjd world. I think that helps week out the flakier people.

The main differences seem to be in discussions like: how to get your parents to buy you a doll, or, whether parents and family and friends like your dolls or not== among the younger members. I started buying dolls when I was working full-time and living on my own, so those issues were totally not part of my experience. But other than that, I really don't pay much attention to the age of people.

Although I DO really enjoy the age-group discussion threads. As I said, I can more easily relate to the older members, so I can find a group I have a fair amount in common with in those threads.

 

The average age that I have found is in the 20's, I'm almost 55. I feel a little uncomfortable around them, but I'm trying to get over it, so I can go to meets and have some fun. It's mostly my problem not theirs, so I'm the one that needs to get over this May December realationships. I know they have a great deal to teach me about this hobby.

 

I find it has less to do with age and more with maturity... call me biased, but I have trouble trusting anyone with my money if they "sound" immature when they type >_>
I do know first hand that actual age doesn't have a lot to do with how well you do business; I've been selling things as a "business" since I was 15 and I've done commissions for 25 year olds who were incredibly bratty, or terrible with money management and ended up trying to return what I made them because they "needed the money" (!!!!!!!! sell it on ebay then! I'm not going through another sale AND a return just cause you messed up your budget!)

 

I agree with Frogg. I've been to meetups with people from age 13-32. and in my eyes, if the 13 year old shows more respect for someone else's doll by not eating over them and using wet wipes to clean their hands, and the 32 year old is so busy eating greasy food, and talking about what messed up anime they were watching and what game it reminded them of that they almost knock another member's doll on the concrete ground... I'm tending more to hang out with the 13 year old. u_u

 

Hmm.. I'm 19.. almost 20 come to think of it. God. I was just waiting on LAST years Xmas presents to come in the mail. Getting old, here. Oh, and I didn't even check age when making my first marketplace purchase. I saw something I wanted... saw a price I'd pay... saw they had a good rep. I'm not one to worry too much about transactions online. Honestly, it never occurred to me that younger DOA'ers have hover-moms that write nasty emails sometimes. I'll have to... google... dealing with mom's sometime. lol. Sounds very unpleasant... like dealing with my own mom except she's not on my side, and I'D be in the role of the psycho internet predator who took the money, has the home address, and is the supposed scammer. I know what it feels like even at my age... luckily she is just over-protective, not a complete hover-mom... doesn't understand internet, and just clicks her tongue when I do something stupid money related. She would NOT go to arms and write an email to some online vendor. If I was younger and she understood computers though, yeah she would be THAT mom. Just trying to protect the kids. Honestly though... I do not hold packages to a 'due date' I get anxious, sure... but packages come late all the time. A day late.. a week late... I've had one from China come months after it was ' supposed to '. I have no idea where in the world it was all that time.. no tracking... I forgot about it until it came, actually. Xmas all over again. So I've been HAPPY to have a late package XD

 

I am 26 and just bought my first full doll from a high school student ^_^

 

buying and selling? good sellers come in all ages so age has nothing to do with it

i realize now i am in the 8% group so i am getting on the older side of the demographic here, what would worry me more would be say going to a doll meet or convention and being the only older person, i mean obviously we would have something in common but its still nice to be around people my own age.

 

I was already legal by the time I got into dolls, so on my end I never had an issue. I did use my mother's Paypal and eBay accounts for years, but because we're very close and had no problems having "joint accounts" on those sites.

I tend to hesitate on the marketplace end if I know a member is under 18. I don't want to open up the whole can of worms involved in buying/selling from someone who can't legally enter into a contract, because "I didn't know" or "they seemed so mature" aren't excuses and I'd be out money if something happened. They may very well be quite mature and knowledgeable, but they're still not 18. Of course things get a bit muddled with international transactions and majority age in various countries, but I try to just not think about that. >>;

As far as interacting with people who are younger than me, it's entirely dependent upon the other person. I've worked with people from their teens to their 60s over the past few years, so any discomfort I used to have in communicating with people of a vastly different age than me is gone by this point. The issue I frequently encounter is that I don't have anything in common with them or our frames of reference are too different, but on a hobby-specific forum like this a lot of that's already taken care of. One thing I've noticed younger members tend to do is type like they've had a lobotomy, e.g. "lol u ppl r so funny jus caus im young im still awsum y cant we jus get allong" or "I Never LeArNeD How To CaPiTaLiZe So I Just Look Like A MoRoN." I'm not comfortable dealing with those people because that indicates something particular about their intelligence and maturity. Either way, age is barely a factor.

TL;DR: Don't like to buy/sell to minors for legal reasons; don't mind interacting with anyone who can type legibly and is not a creeper.

 

for a safe transaction age does not matter..oh a bit of side talk, on some volks box you can find a warning says for age above 15, the youngest bjd collector i've know is 5yrs

 

I'm very new, joined last month, and from my perspective I feel very comfortable asking questions of people who are long time members, and trust that they know what they are talking about since they have been in the hobby longer. I wouldn't be offended if they were wary of buying or selling to me. I'm new, they don't know me--it's only natural. Maybe if I showed them my Ebay feedback or something to show I am ok to sell to would help in that situation?

 

There was a convo on tumblr about this. I think it's rude to discriminate against a member because of age. If I had been supported and encouraged at a younger age I would have my dolls sooner and have a better relationship with money and probably have more job experience. You never know what you say might hurt someone. If they are a member it means they have good taste right? And if they have the money, why not sell to them?

 

Honestly, if my time in doll hobbies has taught me anything, it's that someone being mature in age certainly does not automatically make someone mature in behaviour or professional/conscientious attitude!


So no, because being let down is a risk you take with everyone. I'd be much more swayed by the individual's feedback and reputation, and a history of good dealings with others.

 

I've seen both very mature, responsible children and adults that act like they belong in pre-school. A younger person is certainly more likely to be immature, if only because they've had less time to learn and watch the world around them, but it doesn't apply to everyone.

I usually don't even bother looking for a person's age, especially since it's so easy to lie about it on the internet. The only things that matter to me is that they put some thought into what they say and treat others (of all ages) with consideration and respect.

 

Well considering my best doll friend is 7 years younger than me and she's plenty accomplished on the marketplace I really don't have any problem with it. I've known some younger people with really amazing business/market smarts and people my age who are horrible at it. It really depends on the individual.